Almost one million people in a suburb of Wuhan – China’s central city where the coronavirus was first recorded – have been placed under lockdown.
Isolation Rules
Jiangxia district residents have been ordered to stay inside their homes or compounds for three days after four asymptomatic Covid cases were detected.
China follows a “zero Covid” strategy, including mass testing, strict isolation rules and local lockdowns.
This has resulted in far fewer deaths than in many other countries.
But the strategy is facing growing opposition as people and businesses continue to face the strain of restrictions.
In Wuhan, a city of 12 million people, regular testing uncovered two asymptomatic cases two days ago.
Wuhan became known around the world in early 2020 as the first place scientists detected the new coronavirus – and the first city to be put under harsh restrictive measures.
At the time, the wider world was shocked by the strict lockdown, but many cities and countries were soon forced to impose their own similar measures.
Later, China became known as a Covid success story, with restrictions lifted much earlier than in many other countries.
But that has changed again, with China pursuing a “zero Covid” strategy resulting in frequent local lockdowns, rather than trying to live with the virus as in most other countries.
Zero Covid dominates life in China.
The rest of the world may have moved on, but in China it’s testing, scanning, showing scans, more testing, scanning again, planning for the next test etc etc.
One day this may end but right now there is not the slightest hint that it’s just around the corner.
The threat of being locked down or being denied permission to leave a city constantly hangs over the entire population.
In the cities which have had the longest, most strict lockdowns there is fatigue over the Covid threat.
For the tens of millions of people living in places like Jilin City, Changchun, Xi’an and Shanghai, the idea of being ordered to stay at home again for months at a time seems unbearable.
If it doesn’t, the economy will sink.
Most importantly, there is the Communist Party Congress to get through in autumn, and the country’s low vaccination rates have to be improved, especially among older people.
It is the only way out.
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Source: BBC
